FROM THE MANAGER
Dear members
& patrons
S
eems like we are still trying to get over
the sting of last year’s agricultural yield
and prices woes and next year’s planting
season is already on us again.
As of February 15, 2016, many acres of corn have
gone in the ground. Preliminary acreage reports show a large increase in corn acres with a significant increase in cotton acres while
grain sorghum acres will be down. We think this is purely driven
by economics and risk. Most of our producers feel that they can
produce 5,600 pounds of milo per acre. This, coupled with the invasion of the yellow sugarcane aphid that hosts on grain sorghum,
the possibility of not having the use of one of the major insecticides
that controls the pest, and concern for a rain event at harvest causing sprout damage or loss, have been the most important items that
cause our producers to switch to corn and cotton. Last year, with
China importing large quantities of grain sorghum. The basis were
extremely high. This year, we expect basis levels of milo to be 30 to
40 cents per bushel under corn.
Our crews have been busy repairing our gins and elevators and
are ahead of schedule on these repairs. We did get our deer corn
bagging plant up and running and are turning out a clean, dustless,
high quality deer corn. Delays in plant construction caused us to
miss most or all of deer season, but we have made inroads into the
deer corn market. Our brand is United Ag High Caliber Deer Corn.
This facility will add value to all producers’ grain crops that are
delivered to United Ag’s elevators.
In our tire and tire service division, we have also purchased
scales to make sure the tires we sell are inflated right to get the
most efficient use of your tractors. By weighing producers’ tractors with the equipment that will be attached to it, we can accurately inflate tires to get the least wear and most pulling efficiency.
Different equipment calls for different inflation pressures. Tires
that are underinflated wear out more quickly and cause more
slippage in the field. Ask our tire department about the use of ѡ